Breakers-Manual.Pdf
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A N ELECTRONIC N 0 V E L™ BY Rod Smith Joe Vierra William Mataga Author Programmer Programmer PRINTED MATERIAL BY Rod Smith ~ BrrJderbund® Copyright «:> 1986 by Br¢derbund Software, Inc. This product, both printed material and software, is copyrighted by Br¢derbund Software, Inc. All rights of duplication, distribution, and sale are reserved. Cover photograph by Thomas Helnser. Back cover photograph by Tom Landecker. Illustrations by Frank Cirocco. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THIS BOOK 5 THE BEGINNINGS OF BREAKERS 7 PART/ The Borgian Rifts 9 PART/I Happy Hour 15 PART Ill Counting Stars 21 PART JV Be Here Now 29 PARTV All About Borg 37 PART VJ The Fugitive 45 ADVENTURER'S DIARY 49 HOW TO TALK TO BREAKERS 61 ABOUT THE AUTHORS 71 WARRANTY INFORMATION 83 ABOUT THIS BOOK The book you're holding is not a computer manual. You don't have to read every word before you boot the disk. In fact, you may want to play for a while then browse these pages. Use the Reference Card packaged with your disk if you want to get going quickly. This book is really a tour guide and survival manual in one. The idea is to give you some handy background infor mation before you find yourself in the center of the action. The chapters in The Beginnings of BREAKERS set the scene and introduce the characters before you meet them on your computer screen. You'll find out how to move around through the terrain of the adventure, and you'll get some ideas for dialogue with characters in How to Talk to BREAKERS. Relax and have fun with the book, but as you read, be on the lookout. In BREAKERS, clues-like magazine pages behind a metaplastwall plate-can be anywhere. THE BEGINNINGS OF p A R T 0 N E . ·.· . ' >o . .. ·; . • •,• · .. ··~ :.: ... :, , ' ~ >: : ·:. ... ·· .. ·· ,.,.· · ,.· ,.. ; ; . ~.~~. .<'\ ,,·;:.. .,;' .<·' ·.·.... ·' Starlight on naked rock: a phalanx of meteors charges through space-fan mail from some dead planet, hurtling across the universe like blazing pinballs to flame out, rock by rock; in gravitational fields along the way. After eons of tumbling through darkness, the last meteors veer toward two stars and the golden planet looping around them in an endless figure-eight. Borg turns regally in its atmospheric envelope. High off the surface the air thins out, refraction stops, the light fades into a dome ofever -deepening cobalt, streaked with sudden fire as stellar debris arcs through. Turquoise leaves twitched a mile below the surface in a deep, mist-bound rift. Seven pairs of golden eyes checked a clearing for danger before one of the group stepped into the open. The creature was slight, unclothed, with a large hairless head, a small round mouth and wide eyes that gave it an expression of solemn astonishment. Its skin had the same luminous golden sheen as its eyes. It carried a document in one hand. After a moment the six others emerged from the jungle, and the seven golden beings stood looking straight up through a gap in the mist at the narrow band of dark Borgian sky. THE BORGIAN RIFTS a One of them pointed. "The Creator!" The constellation they beheld was like a benign face, with one golden eye and one blue eye gazing down into the rift. Something like a drop of blood gleamed in its forehead- a red dwarf pulsing irregularly. "Something is wrong;' said one of the golden creatures. "A dark cloud hides the Creator's face-the evil mask of prophecy!" Indeed, the constellation seemed dim, and even the brightest stars were slightly obscured by the shadow, darker than space, creeping over them. "When the Creator shall be masked;' intoned one of the seven, and the others chanted, "then the world will die ... " "When the mask shall fall away;' chanted the first, and the others responded, "then the world will live again ... " The first one said, "The darkness quickens-it is the time ofrenewal. When the blood star vanishes, the dark storm will scour the planet clean. All our people must be returned to Borg. And then we must perform the ritual of the elements, to recreate the Creator so that the Lau may live:' Another murmured, "All our training has brought us to this day:' In reverence and awe, the seven gazed upward at the stricken constellation. Suddenly they heard rough voices drifting up the path, then creaking leather, rattling chains and thudding boots. "Breakers!" Terrified, the golden creatures fled into the jungle. Oaths broke out behind them, followed by blades flashing in the dim violet light At the edge of the jungle, one of the golden creatures fell - two bone-handled knives in its back-and lay twitching as the Breakers, cursing and joking, surrounded it. Their leader had a face like a peeled carrot, scarred down one side. With a raspy chuckle, he yanked his knives out of the corpse and growled, "Like Mulcahy says- II BREAKERS: AN ELECTRONIC NOVEL they're no good dead, but it's better than letting 'em get away!" He wiped the blades on his filthy leather pants amid guttural laughter. Nobody saw the luminous golden mantle that rose from the turquoise jungle and wafted up out of the rift, billowing into the sky until the bright spots in its midst, like pale eyes, winked out one by one. THE BORGIAN RIFTS II p A R T T w 0 Far above the planet, a shiny fleck hangs in the blue-black band ofshallow space. It flickers intermittently in fixed geo graphical orbit over scars on the surface left. by a large ore mining operation. The industrial space colony's age is revealed by the obsolete spherical design, with antiquated solar power panels, reflectors and shields spread over its translucent dome: picture a round blown-glass sculpture hanging in a dark void-a dirty yellow glow inside- its outer surfaces, points and spires dusted with fairy light from distant fireballs. A vagrant meteor smashes through one ofthe solar panels, blows a dish antenna to junk and bounces off the colony's hull. Then it wobbles on into eternity, leaving the hull plates ruptured and gaping behind. The luminous golden mantle roltS up from the planet and drift.s toward the colony, surrounding it and seeming to stare in through the dome with shining eyes as the colony shud ders in the meteor's wake. The lights inside dim and flicker for several moments. Hovering outside the dome, the vapor ous eyes peer into the colony's heart. A universal intelli gence feels along the maze of corridors, through the residence modules, the shops and bays, across the rotting hydroponic vegetable beds and rusting transport pods to the administration module, and out again, sensing every thing. Except for a skeleton mining crew, a handful of drift ers and a large force ofsecurity mutants, the colony seems abandoned. HAPPY HOUR II The mind feels its way to a barroom on one of the utility levels. Under garish colored lights, entities ofevery descrip tion are killing time, drinking, fighting, planning trouble. Ouch! The sordid violence in these entities' brainwaves is painful to the probing awareness. It recoils, and the dusty glow outside the colony hull seems to intensify briefly. Then, tentatively, the intelligence touches some ofthe more acces sible minds in the barroom ... "Haw haw! The look on that thing's face when eight thou sand volts whipped into its face! Haw!" The Cirdonian smacked the bartop, spilling drinks and shaking the floor. Since he was a Cirdonian, nobody complained. Buying a new drink was easier than buying a new head. "Sounds pretty funny;' said a huge boxlike entity next to the Cirdonian. He sounded dubious, or maybe just depressed. "Haw haw! Face turned to jelly, lookin' surprised as livin' Karg-haw haw haw!" The Cirdonian, gasping with mirth, clacked his beak and glared up and down the bar. Everyone laughed along obediently. Panface nodded to Betty the Bartender and gave up his place to another Breaker. Even the Cirdonian pulled back slightly as he left. Panface was known for his sweet, melan choly disposition, but he had also been known to drink too much of Betty's lava and convulsively tear three-inch meta plast plates into confetti while in the throes of some unknown grief. The big solemn guy rolled across the clamorous room, tilting his occipital bulge this way and that while his dark, sad eyes searched for a familiar face among the walking flotsam of a galaxy. A diabolically lousy musician began belaboring an electric lute. Somebody threw a cup of lava toward the stage, and it splattered all over the wall . • BREAKERS: AN ELECTRONIC NOVEL '.y "Panface!" The massive frame trundled around, and some J- thing like a smile lit his aptly-named visage. ~. "Bobo;' he grunted, extending a cloven ham.·A tall blond Terran woman shook it heartily and slapped Panface on his y shoulder. She glanced around furtively and, looking like a 1, - Chan-Lockheed MX99C hauling the oldest subzone barge in )- the system to a scrap orbit, tugged him into a corner. She brushed a mess of hair out of her eyes, but it fell back immediately. "I found something outjust now;' she intimated out of the side of her mouth. " See that geek about to fall on ·his face ·- over by the supply locker hatch? Been pourin' Betty's lava 1 down his pipe to loosen him up. Know what he said?" Panface shook his head, intent on her long face, watching J the expressions flit across like starlight on a moonscape. "He said -get this, he said-" holding the hair out of her face so as to pin him with both ice-blue eyes, "and this is no goof, he looked me right in the face and said real clear, but don't wony, nobody else was listening, he-" "What did he say?" rumbled Panface.